DENVER-
The curator of the Clinton presidential library said Thursday she would recommend against allowing Colorado to keep a borrowed portrait of President Clinton on display at the state Capitol.
The National Archives, which owns the painting, has been trying to get the painting back since 2005. It renewed the loan to Colorado last August to give the state more time to commission a reproduction, said Christine Mouw, curator of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. The library is run by the National Archives.
U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., has asked National Archivist Allen Weinstein to allow Colorado to keep the portrait permanently. Otherwise, he said, there would be a gap in the “Hall of Presidents” in Colorado’s Capitol rotunda.
Mouw said there are no permanent loans of federal property and that paintings are only typically loaned for a year at a time to museums with temperature and humidity controls. Because the Capitol doesn’t have those features, she said, it was unlikely that the painting would ever be returned to Colorado after it undergoes conservation work.
“It’s just time for it to come back. In the museum world, this is very routine,” she said.
The portrait has been hanging with those of the nation’s 42 other presidents since 1996, when the White House loaned it to Colorado. Once Clinton left office it became the property of the National Archives.
The Clinton painting is the only one of the presidential portraits at the Capitol that is not owned by the state. All were painted by the late Lawrence Williams.
State Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, has been asking both Republicans and Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation for help in keeping the portrait. He thinks it makes more sense for it be viewed by the public here than kept in storage in Little Rock.
U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn and Marilyn Musgrave, both Republicans, and Mark Udall, a Democrat, have also offered to help.
“I’ll take help from anyone. It’s a common sense thing,” Weissmann said.
After the extension was granted, the National Archives asked for the painting to be returned by March 30. Lamborn has asked for Colorado to be able to keep it until after the end of the legislative session in May. Mouw said she is open to allowing that but hasn’t received a formal request from state lawmakers yet.
